Mixer vs Twitch: Which Platform Should You Stream On?

Whether you’re just beginning or already broadcasting on Mixer or Twitch, you may be curious which one is your best option. In this article we’ll review the pro’s and con’s of each platform to help you decide which one is for you.

When it comes to game streaming Twitch is the OG. Twitch has dominated and been the leading platform for game streamers to broadcast their content to. Twitch has the most unique channel’s, the most unique channel views, the most hour’s of watch time and the most hours of total stream time.

In recent years the streaming wars have heated up with competitors such as Mixer. Although Mixer just started out in 2016, they’ve recently been doing such things as signing exclusivity deals with famous streamers to shake things up.

A few of the bigger streamers Mixer acquired were Ninja and Shroud. In 2019 Mixer doubled their total number of users. Mixer more than doubled its number of hours watched and streamed when comparing 2019 to 2018. Mixer now has nearly the same amount of unique channels streaming on the platform as Twitch.

Now let’s discuss the origins of each platform along with their pros and cons to settle this Mixer vs Twitch debate.

Twitch

In June 2011 Justin.tv decided to spin off their gaming content as TwitchTV, inspired by the term twitch gameplay. It launched officially in public beta on June 6, 2011. Since then, Twitch has attracted more than 35 million unique visitors a month. On February 10, 2014, Twitch’s parent company (Justin.tv, Inc.) was renamed Twitch Interactive. On August 25, 2014, Amazon acquired Twitch Interactive for $970 million USD.

Pros:

Affiliate and Partner programs – While streaming to Twitch you can earn achievements to grant you access to their affiliate program and with further dedication you can unlock the ability to apply to their partner program. Both programs can generate you revenue.

Affiliate – The requirements are minimal as you only need 50 followers, 500 minutes streamed in the past 30 days, 7 unique days streamed and an average viewership of 3. Once you reach affiliate, you’ll unlock 3 subscriber emotes. You’ll be able to generate income through ads, bits, game sales and subscribers.

Partner – Once you reach partner, you’ll still have your perks from being an affiliate, but will also unlock some extra features and can potentially negotiate a greater revenue share. Extra features include squad streaming, Twitch team, Twitch store t-shirt sales and more.

Ads – Affiliates and partners can earn revenue from all video ads shown on their channels. They will also have the ability to run ad breaks to earn revenue during natural breaks in their streams.

Emotes – Upon reaching affiliate you’ll be able to create a T1, T2 and T3 emote for your subscribers to use. You can unlock a maximum of 5 T1 emotes with subscriber points. As a partner you can unlock a maximum of 60 T1 emotes with subscriber points.

Game Sales – You can earn a 5% commission from select game purchases or in-game purchases your viewers make by clicking the link on your page for the associated game.

Audience – Twitch has the leading number of viewers and watch time among the major game streaming platforms.

Clips – You or your viewers can create clips up to 60 seconds that will be saved to your channel. This can be done while you’re live right when it happened or afterwards if you store your past broadcasts.

Drops – Drops are a fun new way to get in-game loot just for watching your favorite channels on twitch! If the game developer has activated it, all you need to do is link your Twitch account with your game account and you’re eligible to get drops.

Extensions – Channel extensions are essentially little plug-ins that can be added to your channel. You can have up to 3 below your channel and 2 pop outs on your screen.

Highlights – If you store your past broadcasts, after a broadcast you can create a highlight more then 1 minute long that will be saved to your channel.

Squad Stream – Squad stream lets up to four creators go live and stream together in one window. It’s the perfect way to show your community every moment and angle of your team’s multiplayer experience.

Twitch Team – Teams are a way to unite and connect streamers together. People can view a members list of your team along with a description of it. Members who are live will appear at the top of the list and will be featured in the team’s video player.

Cons:

Ads – Some viewers don’t like watching forced ads.

Audience – Most of the viewers are in the bigger streamers channel’s for each game section, leaving most of the streamers with less than 10 viewers. Twitch’s community is full of trolls that like to pester broadcasters.

Clips – User made clips can be created in a negative manner.

Emotes – Only affiliates and partners can have custom emotes.

Extensions – Some extensions are only available to affiliates and / or partners.

Income – Only affiliates and partners have access to earning income through ads, bits, game sales, subscribers and t-shirt sales.

Partner – Reaching partner can be a very tough grind. One of the requirements is an average concurrent viewership of 75.

Squad Stream – To squad stream you must be a partner.

Twitch Team – To create a team you must be a partner and to join one you must be invited.

Mixer

Pros:

Audience – Mixer has a friendly and engaging community. Less trolls then on Twitch.

Co-stream – Co-streaming allows up to 4 streamers to broadcast their streams on one page in a “split-screen” like view, including a centralized chat experience. This is available to all streamers on the Mixer platform.

Embers – Embers are Mixer’s currency / micro-transactions. Embers can be purchased and used to send virtual gifts to Mixer partners.

HypeZone – The HypeZone Channels are the must watch Mixer channels featuring the most exciting down to the wire action. HypeZone scans select games in search for key moments. This gives viewers the opportunity to discover streamers of all levels during the most intense moments of the game. Games included are Apex, COD : BO4, Fortnite, PUBG and RB6 Siege. In order to be featured on a HypeZone channel, you’ll need to be one of the closest to that victory on Mixer.

Panels – Panels can be used to spice up your channel and add images with links to your socials and / or even just add text such as information about you or your schedule.

Partner – On July 24, 2018 Mixer changed their requirements for partner making it easier to obtain. Requirements are a 2+ month old account, 2,000+ followers, 12 days streamed total per month and 25 hours streamed total per month.

Sparks – Sparks are earned by watching content on Mixer. They can be used to send virtual gifts to a streamer. Sparks level you up in the broadcasters channel that you sent them in and help level up the broadcaster as well.

Subscribers – Once you reach partner your viewers can subscribe to you.

Teams – Teams can be many things, from groups of friends who stream together, to big networks. They’re a great way to collaborate and grow your audience. Anyone can create a Team on Mixer for 5,000 sparks. You can have 3 teams at once.

Cons:

3rd Party Apps – There’s a wide array of 3rd party applications that simply don’t exist for Mixer because they’re such a new streaming platform.

Ads – Mixer rolled out ads on partners broadcasts September 17, 2019. Although currently only select partners receive ad revenue. A Mixer Pro subscription is required if you don’t want to see the ads.

Audience – Although Mixer has been gaining many new users and is closing in on the number of users Twitch has, the watch time just doesn’t add up compared to Twitch. Majority of the audience is console based.

Embers – Embers can only be sent to and cashed out by Mixer partners.

Emotes – Only partners can create custom emotes.

Panels – It’s not as straightforward as adding panels on Twitch and requires a link for images. Your images can’t be saved directly and must be pulled from a storage site.

Partner – Although they made partner easier to get, most people still get denied.

Playstation – Mixer isn’t natively available for Playstation users. To broadcast to Mixer from Playstation would require a PC and the use of a capture card or remote play.

In Conclusion

You might still find it difficult to figure out which is better suited for you. Figure out which benefits appeal more to you. Both platforms offer many benefits but also have many cons. Although Twitch has / still is dominating the market, Mixer is definitely on the rise.

As a smaller streamer who’s tried all the platforms along with many mobile ones, but has been contracted for streaming in the past, here’s my personal opinion.. Multistream! Get a PC and use websites such as Castr.io, Mobcrush or ReStream.io! They make it easy for you to broadcast to many platforms while only having to run a single instance of your broadcasting software. As long as you didn’t sign an exclusivity agreement or a contract that states you can only stream to a certain platform then you have no reason not to build them all at once!